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Charles Rangel admitted Wednesday that he owed thousands in back taxes.
Jay Premack

Even former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who often used ethics charges against Democrats to help him rise to power in the House, would press first for investigations, not a floor verdict. And since a handful of House Republicans face their own ethics or even criminal investigations, the idea of abandoning the committee process and going to up-or-down censure motions could be a risky business for any minority.

Boehner’s frustration showed through in a party meeting this week when he warned fellow Republicans against voting in the future to table such motions — or risk losing committee assignments. And Democrats said the Republican was “hammering” his members — akin to DeLay in the past.

Following Rangel’s speech last night, Boehner rose on the floor to say he counted the New Yorker as a friend but still urged him to give up his chairmanship while the ethics committee investigates.

“I don’t want to condemn the gentleman. I’ve never convicted the gentleman,” said Boehner. “But just because he is my friend doesn’t mean I can excuse him from the rules of the House and the law of the land.”

Absent major new disclosures, Rangel should be secure with his chairmanship for the remainder of this Congress. But the list of ethical problems facing him has steadily mounted this summer, and he knows he must get past the questions now if he is to be effective after January, when tax policy will be a huge issue for both parties.

As if separating himself further from the DeLay model, the New Yorker held a more than hourlong news conference Wednesday to answer questions on the charges against him and provide the most detailed data yet on the finances surrounding his beach home in the Dominican Republic.

He has promised to file amended tax forms to cover what his attorney, Lanny Davis, estimates will be $10,800 in federal, state and local taxes owed in recent years. Davis said a more thorough review will be needed to calculate what is owed on an estimated $75,000 in rental income.

The property was purchased about 20 years ago and managed under a time-share-type arrangement that applies Rangel’s share of the rent proceeds to pay down his mortgage. The chairman said he has rarely used the house himself for more than a few days each year, but he has made it available to guests — including some of his colleagues — for short periods, as well.

As explained by Davis, the rental income earned from the house — and others like it in the compound — has been pooled each year and then effectively split, with 53 percent going to management and the remaining 47 percent going to owners such as Rangel.

The Dominican government imposes a 30 percent tax on the owners’ income before any distribution. But over time, the income stream has allowed Rangel to pay off his loans and left him with a property that has certainly gained value from his $28,900 down payment.

“The company’s failure to provide timely and regular statements does not excuse my failure to more diligently pursue the actual terms of the arrangement,” Rangel wrote in a letter to Pelosi that was released Wednesday. But how much he knew remains in question.

Trying to explain himself, Rangel fell back on language difficulties in communicating with the compound’s managers. “Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, they’d start speaking Spanish,” he said. But in his own disclosure forms to the House, he has sometimes reported rental income, suggesting he might have had some way to determine what was benefiting him.

The fact that he could report income some years and not others is a black mark as well for the House ethics system, which is supposed to catch such discrepancies. And all this is compounded by the fact that Rangel is the chief tax writer in the House.

“It’s not just an embarrassment,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Boehner. “It’s flat-out hypocrisy.”

Now that same “Caribbean Charlie” label is being hung around Rangel’s neck, after he failed to pay taxes on thousands of dollars of rental income generated by his beachfront house at the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic.

Charlie Rangel's hand caught in the Cookie Jar! To paraphrase Captain Louis Renault, from Casablanca, "I am shocked, shocked there is corruption going on in Congress!"

If an republican had done this the dems would be calling for their heads. One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 300 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. Corruption in America from Our elected is like the PLAGUE, once they contract the disease, they are sick with no hope of a return to respectably and thus they remain corrupted!

Charlie is a good faith member of the big three that our goverment has always been afraid of. Big Al, Jesse and Charlie the 3 amigos and if you say one bad word about thier stealing or coruption then you are surley a racist. God bless America the land of opertunity.

Mistakes may have been made by me,” Rangel told his colleagues in an emotional, sometimes rambling address. But “when the dust settles, this issue is going to be moot,” he predicted, warning the House against tearing itself apart now over a pre-election ethics fight.

They should just sweep this under the rug for the good of party politics. Well played democrats, well played.

Rangel is a MISTAKE! Where are the two Idiots running for Pres. and VP? Remember the BIG deal about McCain not knowing how many houses they own? I bet my arse that all of their taxes were paid. The Demo rats are dirtier than _hit. Nothing will be done though. Let's have him come to the Hill and put him Under Oath and then find HIM guilty of being a LIAR and send his _SS to prison along with the Leaders of this Party and that my Friends is what they are all having on US and laughing their _ss off. When will WE the People rise up and take back our Nation? The Bale out is really a "BAIL" out of those who are too Stupid to read!!! Oh yea, I am a RACIST also.

How can Rangel look at the American people with a straight face and say he did not know he had to pay taxes??? Boy, try that if your a regular citizen and the IRS will put a levy on everything you own and then some....and to say that his wife did the taxes...outrageous!!! This is a man who writes our tax codes??? Can he seriously think we are that stupid???? This guy should be tossed just for calling the American people stupid!!! I am so sick of politicians getting snagged and then playing stupid...this guy needs to go and if Obama had any balls he would say the same thinmg and show America that he can stand up to his own Party!!!But, as you can see...he did not and will not so it shows you if he cannot stand up to Rangel how will he protect us from really bad guys!!! Sems the only one Obama can pick on is a girl!!!!!

The guy that writes the tax laws, don't have to abide by the laws he writes...right? It's in the Constitution, right? What a joke! He's gotta go! But, he's a New York Democrat...it's like a senator from Chicago...

It seems that the attitudes of our elected politicians are that they are above the law and common decency. Their in inattention or inaction to change their behavior flys in the face of the common constituent who is expected to behave lawfully in dealing with their leaders and each other. There was a time not very long ago in an eastern European country that common people, tired of the years of repression and elitism of their leaders, rose up and without fan fare corrected years of this type of abuse. They took the leader's entire family out into the streets and shot them. In what I call, the Nicolas Ceausescu Retirement Plan for Senior Government Officials drew immediate reaction and significant attention to the wishes of the general public in their country. In our country the oppression is much more subtle and, except for expos?s such as these, not many people know about these illegal activities. So possibility of large groups of people rising up in open revolution is a lot less likely here. But does not rule out the action of an affected few. I would hope that the politicians come to their senses long before anyone takes it upon themselves to invoke the NCRP on some of the more higher profile leaders responsible for the status quo regarding issues of this type. Our nation has taken pride in the rational, orderly, and civil way issues of this type are ordinarily resolved. But, when the lawmakers become the lawless then they are the only ones to blame for irrational, disorderly, and uncivil reactions to them.

I guess I?m just being cynical, But nothing that comes out of the current congress will surprise me. The Democrats wanted power, they told us, they will clean up Washington, ya??.When pigs fly! The only thing politicians are interested in is?? keeping their job. They are so busy trying to keep their jobs and power; they forget to do their jobs. They need to remember WE are their supervisors; we have the power to fire them, not saying the American people care enough to do it. But it would be nice just once to see a politician get fired for wrong doing. I?m just tired of lazy politicians, who don?t show up for votes or who vote ?present? so they don?t have to commit. I would love to address congress just once to vent and try and explain why they have a 29% approval rating! Because, they just don?t seem to get it!

First it was the accountant, then it was his wife who handles the finances, then it was the manager of the place and the fact that he spoke in Spanish! Like the four rent controlled apartments and the big car, Rangel, an affable man who creates a high bar for the rest of us, has some very strange arrows in his financial quiver. The joke around here is that we will find someday that Rangel owns a good deal of waterfront property in Havana. Rotting flesh, rotting mind, Rangel is one sick, slick, selfish, amoral old dog. He's a disgrace to his office, our constitution, and all it stands for. He should be forced to resign immediately.

ANYONE SUPRISED BY POLOSI's INACTION????? RANGEL's actions should not suprise anyone, he has always been Mr. Sleeze...Four (4) appartments in NYC, real estate in the Islands, pay no taxes, IT's ALL AN OVERSIGHT WITH THESE SCUMMY AZZES...The IRS SHOULD bury Rangel.....The Democrat controlled Congerss have sat on their asses for two (2) years and accomplished nothing....HAVE ANY QUESTIONS WHY THIS IS THE MOST USELESS CONGRESS IN US HISTORY????? LOWEST APPROVAL RATINGS IN US HISTORY.... ANSWER: WORSE (NON)LEADERSHIP IN HISTORY(POLOSI, RANGEL, REID, DURBIN).....What about the Alternative Min Tax????? Millions of TAX PAYERS are going to get a serious shock when they do their taxes in 2009, WHICH IS AFTER THE NOVEMBER ELECTION.....Vote for a democrat, you want CHANGE?? Thats all you'll have in your pocket (CHANGE) when these COMMUNISTS/SOCIALISTS get done TAXING THE LIFE OUT OF THE AMERICAN TAX PAYERS.....

Rangel should be indicted tried in a court and if found guilty should be put in prison. Wesley Snipes the actor was imprisoned for failure to file which as I remember is misdemeanor. Filling a false return is a felony. To many of the members of the US congress in both political parties are somehow above the law. What has occurred is not a congressional ethics issue it is US tax law issue. Chris Dodd should also be examined closely along with 90% of the members of the US congress. The terrorist to this nation all reside in Washington DC. It truely is the culture of immorality and corruption. Lying cheating and stealing rule the capital

You know, we're all blessed, all of us who don't live in D.C., that is. Just think, if all our politicians had decided to go into pick-pocketing full-time, instead of politicking, none of us would be safe going anywhere outside our homes, not to the store, the movies, a ballgame. But the poor bast*rds in D.C.(other than the pols), are constantly subject to the preditations of the politicians (other than those few hours a week they are 'in session'). Imagine going to a supermarket in the capitol and having to keep at least one hand on your wallet at all times while trying to pick items off the shelf. Or going to a ballgame or concert and not being able to applaud because you only have one hand free. Or trying to wash your hands after taking a leak, using only one hand at a time. Yeah, the rest of us are lucky to be away from those dastardly pols, except on their four-day weekends and six-month vacations.